Why label? Why not just follow Jesus?

For about a month, there has been an ongoing discussion about the term “mainline.” I posted that I refused to use it because it has historic connections to upper class, white society and doesn’t adequately reflect the diversity of our social justice history. That spurred a number of Internet conversations. Cathy Lynn Grossman of Religion News Service hosted a survey to rename the Mainline. Grossman talked with a number of scholars, like Diana Butler Bass, who weighed in here.

I’ve been surprised at the defensiveness of keeping the term. As Martin E. Marty wrote, it is a name its participants didn't choose. It was made up for us and we slipped into it a few decades ago. 

But here are some of the most interesting arguments I’ve heard around the discussion.